In Spain, police violence against press sparks concern

Spanish
press associations have expressed concern about recent episodes of police
violence against journalists covering demonstrations against Pope Benedict's
four-day visit to Madrid and protests staged as part of the anti-corruption 15-M
movement.

Freelance
photographer Daniel Nuevo was covering August 18 protests in Madrid against the
Catholic Church-sponsored World Youth Days, which featured Benedict XVI and attracted
hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. Grassroots church groups and civic
organizations organized the demonstrations to denounce the "waste" incurred by
the celebration, which is partly financed by government and corporate sponsors.

"I was
following a group of riot policemen down Atocha Street after the anti-pope
demonstration was over on the night of August 18," Nuevo told CPJ. He described
the scene that led to him been beaten by an anti-riot unit of the national
police. (Video footage is posted on YouTube.)

"There were
both Catholic pilgrims and protesters walking in the area. Somebody yelled at
the police, so they stopped walking and created a barrier in the street,
blocking the traffic, to filter those who could walk by. They let several
pilgrims go by, but then they stopped a girl who was not carrying the official
World Youth Day backpack. The unit leader first beat her, and then she was hit
with police truncheons several times as her boyfriend tried to get her out of
the scene. I took a couple of pictures. Police knew I was there and that I was
a journalist. I think they felt the flash, and then they beat me in my nape
with a nightstick. I was dizzy and fell down."

Nuevo writes
about the attack and other incidents in his blog, where he has
also posted several images.

Local press
reports described at least five other cases in police directed verbal or
physical abuse against journalists covering protests August 17 and 18.
Independent journalist Patricia Horrillo posted a video on YouTube that
shows an unidentified police officer suddenly taking the reporter's ID from
around her neck, asking for more personal information, then bringing her down
aggressively and handcuffing her.

"Such
graphic and oral testimonies of an unrestrained severity and excesses and
violence against citizens and journalists from certain policemen demand a
proper investigation," the Madrid Press Association said in an August 19
statement. Fernando González Urbaneja, president of the association, told CPJ
that "the images we have seen show a worrying arbitrariness on behalf of
certain policemen; there have been indefensible aggressions against journalists
in the past days."

The climate
was already tense after Gorka Ramos, a journalist for the news website Lainformacion, was beaten and arrested
while covering 15-M protests in front of the Interior Ministry in Madrid on
August 4. The 15-M protests rallied thousands of Spanish citizens in several
cities. Ramos spent a night in jail and was charged with disobeying authorities,
although video
shows aggression by at least seven anti-riot police officers.

"Gorka's
arrest and then the images we saw concerned us very much," said Urbaneja, who met
with Interior Ministry representatives to express concern. "But we do not have
in Spain any worrying conflict of relations between police and the media. When
there is an incident, we seek and get enough explanations, as it has been the
case. There are no obstacles to free reporting by members of the press. What we
have seen are intolerable episodes of individual policemen exceeding their
authority."

The Madrid
group's concerns were
reiterated in an August 20 statement by the Spanish Federation of Press
Associations. Elsa González, thr association's president, told CPJ that "we
cannot tolerate such behavior. When you are wearing a uniform you ought to
respect every citizen´s dignity. So we have expressed our concern to the government.
But it is also true that these have been isolated incidents, when police forces
were overstretched by a climate of protests in the country. I do not see a
systematic deterioration of the police attitude."

There were indeed
mitigating factors. Tensions were high, testing the police. Some independent
journalists were said to have acted as participants in protests, and not merely
as observers. But with Spain holding general elections in November amid severe economic
uncertainties, the social climate could be further tested--as could police relations
with the press.

Borja Bergareche is a Spanish-based news executive and former Europe correspondent for CPJ who still advises the organization.